Austin Bat Hospital Blog

New Logo

Dear, dear friends had a another logo designed for the Austin Bat Hospital.  The art work is by David Chapman, an incredible artist in San Antonio, Texas.  I love it.  It is so cute!

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Heating pads

Well, it is a cold night tonight, in the 30s, much too cold for me!  All the cats, and dogs, and bats are cuddled up on their cozy heating pads. Everybody has one except for me!  If you have an old heating pad you don't use, send it to me at: 7601 Dee Gabrial Collins Rd, Austin, Texas, 78744. I promise I'll make good use of it!

Cold Weather!

Burrr!  It's only 23 degrees F in Austin, Texas today!  Everything is ice covered and my water pipes are frozen.  The little bats are all cuddled up on their heating pads.  The electricity went out during the night but came back on again, thank goodness, or it would really have gotten cold in the bat barn.  It will be cold today and tomorrow, but warmer again on Saturday.  So I could be without water for another day.  I am expecting to get in a lot of cold little bats from outside.  Although the majority of Mexican free-tailed bats have left the area, many remain in Austin year round.  They can tolerate brief bouts of cold weather, but there are always some in need of a little food and a nice warm roost until the cold passes.  The Austin Bat Hospital is happy to give them the temporary shelter they need.

The dogs have the last laugh

In an effort to keep my wayward dogs from escaping under various parts of the fense that surround the house and bat hospital, I finally decided to put up an electric fense.  It took me forever.  Somehow I tangled up 150 feet of wire and had to untie knot after knot.  I installed the box the wire attaches to inside the old chicken coop by the bat barn and then stood up and pushed my head right into a nest of yellow jackets!  I jumped up, screaming my head off and of course, fell into the electric fense.  The 3 dogs were very excited by the whole episode and chased along behind me, wagging their tails as I ran around the yard, slapping at the hornets in my hair and electrifying myself.  I finally whacked the last hornet off my head and yelled at the dogs to wipe the amused look off their faces.

New Bats

I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of some new bats tomorrow.  Some big browns will be coming to live with me.  I already have some big brown bats.  I don't generally get as many big browns as I do other species.  Central Texas is one of the few places in the U.S. where big brown bats don't live.  I'm always excited to have new arrivals.  I have one big brown that is having some dental problems, so I am having to brush her teeth every day.  She wasn't happy about it to begin with, but now she just calmly holds her mouth open and lets me brush away with a tiny interdental tooth brush.   

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to all you bat lovers out there!  It was a cool but beautiful day in Austin, Texas.  The sun was shining and wonderful smells were eminating from everywhere!  I ate way too much again (always do on Thanksgiving).  And to make it worse, I had two Thanksgiving dinners this year, which was lucky for me since I don't cook myself.  (The only thing that smells good in my house is candles!)

I blended up mealworms for all my bat children and added carrots, one of their favorites.  Everyone stuffed their faces and then lounged around like couch potatoes for the rest of the day.  Which reminds me, my children gobble up an outrageous amount of mealworms each day.  Want to help by giving a small donation for their dinner :)  Just call Sunshine Mealworms at: 1 (800) 322-1100 and make a donation to the account of Barbara French at Bat World Austin.  The little critters will appreciate it (me too).  Happy Holidays everyone!

Back at Last

Finally, I'm back to my blog. I've gotten off track for a while, but will be posting regular notes on my life with bats now. My father was ill and I traveled back to Wisconsin to visit him. I left the bats for about a day, feeding them early the day I left, and returning the following day, feeding them again that night. So they only had to go an extra 12 hours before being fed. I really need to find enough help to allow me the freedom to leave for a few days without worrying about all of the animals. Plus I have 3 dogs and 4 cats, so my household takes a lot of work.

My beloved friend, Bryan, is leaving on Sunday for San Diego where he is going for 6 months to work as a photographer. I will miss him dearly, but told him I was going along with him, vitually, at least. So I'll e-mail and call him all along the trip. He is a very talented person and may end up moving to San Diego permanently. San Diego is a very nice place.

There is a very short article about me in the October issue of National Geographic magazine. I am very excited about that. Back to my bat children. More later.

Graduate Students

A number of graduate students will be working at the Austin Bat Hospital on their own projects this year. One is already here recording bat calls. Another is coming in a month to investigate echolocation calls in the flight cage. Another will be here in a couple of months to work with red bat babies. I am happy to be able to provide them with a place where they can investigate various aspects of bats in a noninvasive manner.

SNOW!

Oh, my gosh! I came out of the bat barn at about 1:00am the night before last and it was snowing! We almost never see snow! It was not just snowing, snow actually covered the ground and stayed there for a few hours. It was so strange to see snow falling here. Thank goodness it is relatively warm today, in the 60's. I worry about the bats that stay here all year under the bridge if it gets too cold and it's been cold for a few nights now. Spring is just around the corner though.